Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas signs contracts for 32 blocks awarded under Open Acreage Licensing Programme  Bid Rounds – II & III
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today signed contracts for 32 blocks awarded under Open Acreage Licensing Programme  Bid Rounds – II & III. The Government had launched OALP Bid Rounds-II and III on 07th January, 2019 and 10th February, 2019 respectively. While Bid Round–II offered 14 Blocks , the Bid Round-III offered 23 blocks including 5 CBM blocks  under International Competitive Bidding  process. The bidding for both these rounds closed on 15th May, 2019. Subsequent to evaluation, a total of 32 blocks were approved for award to 6 companies, for which the Revenue Sharing Contracts have been signed today, in the presence of the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan. The total area awarded today in the 32 blocks is 58,998 sq.km. .
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan said increasing production of crude oil and gas is the priority of the government. He said that the country already has a network of refineries and a robust marketing setup, and E&P sector is expected to come up in a big way. “Today’s award of OALP contracts is a step in this direction”, Shri Pradhan added. He said that India is going to become a $5 trillion economy and energy security, availability and accessibility are essential for this. India is going to surpass China in energy consumption in a few years. He said the last five years have been a journey of continuous policy reforms and bold decisions, as the Country moved from production sharing to revenue sharing and now reached Maximum Work commitment programme in the E&P sector- all these are intended to increase production. He assured the successful bidders of OALP rounds that all issues can be solved through discussions and consultations, and they should not delay the projects at all.
The first OALP Bid Round was launched by the Government in January 2018, and had received overwhelming success with 110 bids for 55 blocks covering 59,282 sq. km. area. All the 55 blocks were awarded in October, 2018 and the Operators of these blocks have since initiated petroleum exploration activities or are in final stages of obtaining Petroleum Exploration Licenses . The first oil/gas from these blocks is expected before year 2023.
The Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy , which has adopted the Revenue Sharing contract model, is a giant step towards improving the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the Indian Exploration and Production  sector. It comes with attractive and liberal terms like reduced royalty rates, no oil cess, marketing and pricing freedom, round the year bidding, freedom to investors for carving out blocks of their interest, a single license to cover both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources, exploration permission during the entire contract period, and an easy, transparent and swift bidding and awarding process.
With the successful roll out of the HELP/OALP regime, based on the world-class National Data Repository , the Government has achieved a massive enhancement of exploration acreage in India. The acreage which stood at approximately 90,000 sq. km. in 2017 has now been enhanced to 2,10,000 sq. km. with today’s award, after 3 rounds of OALP. The country’s exploration acreage is expected to reach 300,000 sq. km. by the end of the year 2019 with further two rounds of bidding. The 4th cycle of submitting Expressions of Interest  closed on May 15, 2019 and currently the 5th cycle of EoI is open till November 15, 2019.
Details of Blocks awarded in OALP II & III:
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BLOCKS
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ONLAND
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22
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OFFSHORE
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8
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DEEP WATER
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1
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ULTRA DEEP WATER
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1
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TOTAL
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32
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Total number of awarded blocks
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PSUs
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Private companies
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32
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21

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11

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OIL - 12
ONGC- 8
IOC- 1
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Vedanta Limited - 10
BP Exploration}
Reliance Ind. Ltd.} 1
Bidder Wise blocks awarded in OALP II and III
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Company
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Blocks Awarded
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Description 
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Area of Award 
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Oil India Limited

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MN-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Mahanadi / Odisha
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2,933.85
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MN-ONHP-2018/2
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Onland / Mahanadi / Odisha
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2,539.51
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MN-ONHP-2018/3
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Onland / Mahanadi / Odisha
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3,138.59
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MN-ONHP-2018/4
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Onland / Mahanadi / Odisha
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3,196.86
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AN-OSHP-2018/1
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Shallow Water Offshore / Andaman / -
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3,669.25
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AN-OSHP-2018/2
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Shallow Water Offshore / Andaman / -
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5,947.45
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RJ-ONHP-2018/2
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Onland / Rajasthan / Rajasthan
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3,016.34
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MN-ONHP-2018/5
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Onland / Mahanadi / Odisha
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2,299.74
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AA-ONHP-2018/2
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Onland / Assam Arakan / Nagaland
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2,526.74
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AA-ONHP-2018/3
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Onland / Assam Shelf &Arakan / Assam
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1,234.42
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AA-ONHP-2018/5
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Onland / Assam Shelf / Tripura
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207.74
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KK-OSHP-2018/1
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Shallow Water Offshore / Kerala Konkan / -
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3,519.69
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Total 
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34,230.18
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Company
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Blocks Awarded
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Description 
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Area of Award 
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Vedanta Limited

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RJ-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Rajasthan / Rajasthan
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417.44
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CB-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Cambay / Gujarat
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185.27
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GK-OSHP-2018/1
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Shallow Water Offshore / Kutch / -
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1,731.78
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GK-OSHP-2018/2
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Shallow Water Offshore / Kutch / -
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812.54
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MN-OSHP-2018/1
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Shallow Water Offshore / Manahadi / -
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1,825.07
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CB-ONHP-2018/3
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Onland / Cambay / Gujarat
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519.17
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CB-ONHP-2018/4
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Onland / Cambay / Gujarat
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558.72
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KG-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Krishna Godavari / Andhra Pradesh
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2,600.95
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KG-ONHP-2018/2
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Onland / Krishna Godavari / Andhra Pradesh
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230.29
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AA-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Assam Shelf / Assam
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2,48.87
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Total 
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9130.10
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Company
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Blocks Awarded
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Description 
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Area of Award 
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ONGC Limited

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CB-ONHP-2018/2
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Onland / Cambay / Gujarat
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846.82
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CY-ONHP-2018/2
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Onland / Cauvery / Tamil Nadu & Puducherry
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459.83
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CY-ONHP-2018/3
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Onland / Cauvery / Tamil Nadu
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1,403.41
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BP-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Bengal Purnea / West Bengal
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2,468.00
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AA-ONHP-2018/4
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Onland / Assam Arakan / Tripura
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44.01
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MB-OSHP-2018/1
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Shallow Water Offshore / Mumbai Offshore / -
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1,267.96
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MB-OSHP-2018/2
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Shallow Water Offshore / Mumbai Offshore / -
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4,668.06
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MN-DWHP-2018/1
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Deep Water Offshore / Mahanadi / -
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2,491.31
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Total 
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13,649.40
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Indian Oil Corporation Limited 
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CY-ONHP-2018/1
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Onland / Cauvery / Tamil Nadu
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474.19
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Total 
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474.19
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BP Exploration and Reliance Industries Limited 
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KG-UDWHP-2018/1
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Ultra Deep Water Offshore / Krishna Godavari / -
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1,513.90
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Total 
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1,513.90